Tools

French oddity begs us to follow along as an office worker named Rose Pamphyle (Déborah François) trains for the world speed-typing championship on her manual typewriter, circa 1959. In some other movie, Rose’s daffy quest – egged on by her single-mindedly businesslike boss (Romain Duris) – would be a preamble to something bigger and funnier. Here, alas, it’s practically the only thing going on. Rookie feature-film director Régis Roinsard, who wrote the screenplay with Daniel Presley and Romain, is guilty of aggravated shaggy-dog-ism with this deadpan, dead-end farce, which takes the Jean Dujardin school of parody (The Artist) to new levels of non-sequitur. Bérénice Bejo costars (111 min.).
ByKelly Vance